Published July 2025 in my hometown NC paper, The Franklin Times. Part of the Science Homecoming initiative.
KJ Muldoon was only a few days old when his parents received devastating news: their son was born with a rare genetic disorder affecting his liver. KJ was immediately put on dialysis and waitlisted for a liver transplant. His family could only hope that he would avoid neurological damage while waiting.
KJ’s story could easily have ended there, but what happened next was a remarkable feat of science. Under care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, KJ received personalized treatment that corrected the small “error” in one of his genes. The new technology was able to find the exact mutation and induce his body to fix it. Days after the first treatment, KJ showed improvement, and he is now home playing with his sisters and brother.
This miracle was made possible by you, the US taxpayer, funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). Personalized genetic therapy, once science fiction, is now reality due to decades of fundamental research in biology, engineering, and computer science. And this investment was relatively cheap—the entire 2024 budget for NIH and NSF combined is under 1% of federal spending. If you paid $10,000 in federal taxes last year, about $100 went to funding the world’s best science.
The federal budget currently being debated will determine whether America remains the global leader in science and innovation. Proposed cuts would slash NIH funding by 40% and NSF by 56%. The money saved represents just 1/200th of the federal budget, but the cost will reverberate for years in lost lives, fewer jobs, decreased economic growth, and diminished national security.
The fruits of science are so widespread, they sometimes escape notice. GPS, weather forecasting, MRI, 99% of prescription drugs, the internet — all emerged from federally funded research. Recent economic studies estimate hurricane forecasting improvements save $5 billion per hurricane in the U.S. Universities like NCSU and UNC are making steady progress in the fight against heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. One example — in the 1960s, only 14% of kids with leukemia survived five years; now 94% do.
Beyond saving lives, science delivers exceptional economic returns — the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimates a return between $1.40 and $2.10 for every $1 invested in federal scientific research. In 2024, NIH awarded $1.98 billion in grants and contracts in North Carolina, supporting over 21,000 jobs and $4.8 billion in economic activity in our state.
Research proposals to NIH and NSF undergo extensive expert review and are highly competitive—only 15% of NSF proposals get funded. Certainly, studies sometimes seem odd at first glance—what useful information could we glean from Gila monster lizards in the deserts of Arizona? But scientific knowledge builds on itself unpredictably. Lurking in Gila monster venom were hormones that enabled development of medications like Ozempic, that have tremendous potential for the treatment of obesity.
America has been the greatest scientific force in the world for the past century. We make the most discoveries, win the most Nobel Prizes, and create the most life-saving medicines and procedures. The top minds from across the world come to the US to study, teach, build companies, and do research. Now, other countries are attempting to poach American scientists, because they see that American exceptionalism in science may be ending.
If you think we should keep investing in science, call your representatives. For Franklin County, that’s Don Davis (202-225-3101) in the US House, and Thom Tillis (919-856-4630) and Ted Budd (202-224-3154) in the US Senate. Their votes will decide whether America continues leading scientific discovery.
John Benning 